Study Reveals Severity Of Go-cart Injuries

Date:

December 1, 2005

Source:

Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center

Summary:

A Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center study of children who were hospitalized from motorized go-cart accidents found that the average hospital stay was almost five days and that more than half of children required at least one operation -- and almost a third required two or more operations.

Share:

Total shares:

FULL STORY

A Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center study of children who were hospitalized from motorized go-cart accidents found that the average hospital stay was almost five days and that more than half of children required at least one operation -- and almost a third required two or more operations.

"Many parents don't seem to be aware of the potential dangers of private go-karts," said David Cline, M.D., an emergency medicine specialist and one of the study researchers. "Many of these injuries were severe, and all children required follow-up care after they left the hospital."

The study results were presented today at the Radiological Society of North America meeting in Chicago by Annemarie Relyea-Chew, J.D., M.S., from the University of Washington in Seattle. Relyea-Chew and colleagues conducted the research while she was a graduate student at Wake Forest Baptist.

The information on go-cart injuries was part of a larger study of 160 children ages 16 and under who were admitted to the hospital from April 1998 to April 2003 as a result of injuries from all-terrain vehicles, go-carts, mini-bikes and golf carts. The remainder of the results will be published later.

While public go-cart tracks have safety restrictions, privately owned go-carts are largely unregulated. According to the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, more than 10,000 go-cart injuries to children 15 and younger occur each year.

"Unsupervised children have the potential to sustain serious injuries," said Cline, an associate professor of emergency medicine at Wake Forest University School of Medicine.

The researchers reviewed patients' medical records to learn more about their injuries. The 18 children injured on go-carts ranged in age from 2 years to almost 16 years -- the average age was 10.3 years.

Injuries were the result of collisions with stationary objects or moving vehicles or losing control of the go-cart and rolling over. Some children were ejected from the go-cart and then struck by either another vehicle or the go-cart. Injuries included severe injuries to the face and neck from running into a wire fence, skull fractures and brain injuries from a collision or ejection, and injuries to the arms and legs from being run over.

In one case, a child had leg fractures when his leg and foot were caught between the cart frame and a tree. In another, the driver ran into the rear of a parked truck. Another plunged off an embankment onto concrete. Another child's finger was nearly severed when the go-cart flipped and his hand was caught under the cart and wheel.

Five of those injured weren't driving the go-cart, but were seated on the driver's lap or standing on the frame and ejected. "Even in cases where there is an older driver, younger children are being injured when they are riding in someone's lap or standing on the vehicle," said Cline.

He said the vehicles pose a variety of dangers, such as exposed gas tanks, machinery and engines and no protection for the head, arms and legs.

"With the exception of seat belts, none of the safety features that are built into cars are included on go-karts," Cline said.

It could not be determined whether four of the patients were wearing helmets. Ten of the remaining 14 patients (71 percent) were not wearing helmets.

Cline said children should not be allowed to operate the carts without adult supervision.

"Children lack the maturity to safely operate these vehicles without supervision," he said. "The dangers are magnified when no adult is present."

In addition, Cline said children should be at least 12 years old and weigh more than 80 pounds to operate go-carts and that in some cases even higher standards are advised.

"We don't have enough data to say who is truly safe," he said.

In addition to Cline and Relyea-Chew, other researchers were Marta Heilburn, M.D., with Wake Forest Baptist and Felix Chew, M.D., now with the University of Washington.

July 31, 2015  School is just around the corner, which means backpacks and packed lunches await your children. One expert offers tips for parents to promote healthy dental habits while away from ... read more

July 29, 2015  By blocking the expression of a certain gene in patients, researchers have contributed to the demonstration of great decreases in the concentration of triglycerides in their ... read more

July 29, 2015  Viewing aquarium displays led to noticeable reductions in blood pressure and heart rate, a research team found in the first study of its kind. They also noted that higher numbers of fish helped to ... read more

June 11, 2014  Hospital readmission, an important measure of quality care, costs the United States an estimated $17 billion each year. And according to researchers, about half of those readmissions could be ... read more

Jan. 21, 2014  Although a voluntary shopping cart safety standard was implemented in the United States in 2004, the overall number and rate of injuries to children associated with shopping carts have not decreased. ... read more

Oct. 15, 2011  Less than half of pediatric car passengers suffering injuries from motor vehicle crashes were restrained, with the lowest rates among blacks, Hispanics and Native Americans, according to a new ... read more

May 2, 2011  Children who are exposed to secondhand smoke are more likely to need intensive care and intubation when hospitalized with influenza, according to new research. The children also had longer hospital ... read more